The group has attracted media attention for both its non-violent "disarmament" direct actions, and mass civil disobedience at the gates of Royal Navy establishments with connections to the United Kingdom's Trident weapons systems.

Trident Ploughshares activists argue that since the British government has not responded to their various communications regarding the legal status of the Trident nuclear missile system, they must take individual responsibility for disarmament.

The second major disturbance was on 27 April 2001, when three female members of the campaign boarded the barge Maytime in Loch Goil and destroyed and took equipment. After being charged with maliciously damaging the vessel, stealing two inflatable life rafts and damaging equipment in an on-board laboratory, they were acquitted at the subsequent trial in Greenock,[2] which was later appealed to the Scottish High Court with the Lord Advocate's Reference 2001. Although under Scottish Law the High Court did not have the power to overturn the acquittals, their judgement was that the basis of the defence case should not have been admissible.[3]

In May 2005 the group squatted on Drake's Island, a privately owned island in Plymouth Sound declaring it a "nuclear free state" in order to "highlight Britain's hypocrisy over the non proliferation treaty talks being held in New York".